BCS Certificate in Commercial Awareness — A 3 day course

Synopsis

The era of autonomous organisations holding a monopoly position with their product or service is fading and increasingly organisations find themselves in ever more competitive environments where the key to success is not only through internal efficiency, but also by judicious collaboration with suppliers, outsourcing partners and competitors.

In order that businesses can operate successfully in the current environment they are being forced to find new approaches to operating through restructuring, changing their organisational behaviour, modifying their internal and external boundaries, and establishing additional techniques for measuring performance. For today's business analyst to make a valuable contribution they need an awareness of all influences that affect an organisation.

This course gives an understanding of those financial and management accounting techniques that are crucial to an organisation both from a legal and administrative perspective. It also explores the social science aspects that are often hidden or not given sufficient priority that will ultimately govern the flexibility and adaptability of an organisation, which determine its ability to survive in today's competitive markets.

At the end of the course delegates may sit an examination to attain the BCS certificate in Commercial Awareness.

The cost of the examination is included in the course fee.

Objectives

This course will enable delegates to:

Understand three techniques used to evaluate a financial case

Understand costing and pricing

Understand cash flow forecasting and budgeting

Describe the contents of financial accounting documents

Interpret financial accounts

Explain specified business performance ratios

Define the elements and usage of Porter's Five Forces Framework and Value Chain

Define the elements and usage of the Boston Consulting Group's matrix

Define the performance measures and usage of the Balanced Business Scorecard

Define the elements of specified cultural analysis approaches

Explain the different management structures and their characteristics

Define the different architectures that may be adopted by organisations

Contents

Evaluating a Financial Case

Purpose of Building a Financial Case

Techniques used for evaluating a Financial Case

Budgeting, Costing and Pricing

Budgets and Departmentalised Businesses

Cash Flow and Cash Management

Costing and Pricing

Financial Reporting and Analysis

Balance Sheet

Income and Expenditure

Cash Flow Statement

Ratios(formulae and interpretation)

Market analysis and competitive advantage

Analysing the business domain

Analysing the portfolio

Delivering value

Organisational behaviour and culture

What is organisational behaviour?

Organisational effectiveness and the Balanced Scorecard

Understanding and analysing culture

Group formation

Groups and group dynamics

Formal and informal groups

Principles of organisational structure

Organisation structuring

Types of jobs

Line, staff and functional relationships

Formalisation of rules and procedures

Centralisation v decentralisation

Operating models

Organisation structures and their characteristics

Organisational boundaries

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Select a date to enquire about availability of places. For dates after 25 September 2018, please call 0333 210 0140 or use our contact form to enquire about places and availability.

Suitable For

Those wishing to acquire a basic level of understanding about business finance and behavioural influences

Those wishing to attain the BCS Certificate in the Commercial Awareness

Candidates with special examination requirements should consult the ISEB web site (www.iseb.org.uk) for the ISEB Special Needs policy. Note that the ISEB must be advised at least four weeks in advance of any special requirements.